Joseph R. Cerrell, a leading California Democrat and prominent Italian American, has called on Chairman Howard Dean to apologize to Federal Appellate Judge Samuel Alito for Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffers saying the Supreme Court nominee was weak in prosecuting the Mafia. Dean has not replied to Cerrell’s Nov. 2 letter. A DNC press release blasted Alito’s record as a federal prosecutor in losing “a key conviction” that resulted in members of the Lucchese crime family being freed. “The staffers and the DNC must apologize to Judge Alito and to all Italian Americans” for “scurrilous tactics,” Cerrell’s letter said. He contended “this kind of behavior is beneath any standard of the Democratic Party that I have known.” Cerrell, a Los Angeles-based political consultant, is vice chairman of the National Italian American Foundation.